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MMO Family: A parent's look at Pixie Hollow
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family ... From tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate niches for every family member, MMO Family offers you advice on MMO gaming of the family, by the family and for the family. I wasn't planning to include a 2-D Flash game in MMO Family's initial sweep of children's games -- but then my daughter tried Disney's Pixie Hollow. Initially dismissive of the idea of slumming it in 2-D, she found herself utterly captivated by its magpie collection quests and friendly community of players. In the eyes of this 8-year-old road tester, Pixie Hollow delivers an enjoyable, social experience in an online world ... And I was forced to admit that this world suits her own interests as well as deeply immersive MMO worlds hold mine. We're not going to get into gender wars here. Obviously, some girls won't like the fairies theme, and we're sure grownups will continue their snarky debates over the game's recently added male characters ("sparrow men"). Beyond that, what's most apparent is that Pixie Hollow successfully snares both kids who are enthralled with the Disney Fairies franchise and those who simply enjoy a glittery, web-based spot to flutter and chatter.
Disney Fairies will please little girls this winter
Disney announced today that a game called Disney Fairies will be heading to the Nintendo DS this holiday season. Apparently, Disney Fairies is an entire franchise, spanning books, online minigames, movies, and maybe even other forms of media, too.The DS game will let young girls (we hate to generalize, but come on) dress and accessorize Tinker Bell, as well as barter for more clothes from other fairies. (After all, why not let Tinks wear something other than a leaf dress?) Other activities will include minigames, of course, and completing tasks for the fairies of Pixie Hollow. Disney Fairies will also make use of Disney's new DGamer service, which launched last week. Confession: If this game had come out when this blogger was a wee lass -- oh, never mind, there's no sense in shaming the DS Fanboy staff and girl gamers all over the world. (Oops, too late.)[Via Kotaku]
The future of Disney Online: An interview with SVP Steve Parkis
Last week, Disney Online merged multiple online divisions into a single entity now called Disney Online Studios. I had a chance to talk to the Senior Vice President in charge of it all, Steve Parkis, about the vision for one of the world's most recognizable brands as it tackles the fast-rising casual online gameplay market.Before now, Disney's online efforts spanned over many different areas: developing Flash based casual games; acquiring the online community, Club Penguin; and building the successful family-oriented MMORPGs ToonTown Online and Pirates of the Caribbean Online. Steve's mission is to bring all of those together to make Disney.com a dedicated casual games destination.He believes that casual players are more than just Women 35+ and that there is a large, untapped market of players that Disney's brand can draw in. But how does he plan to do that?
